Reese Witherspoon recounts challenges she faced early in her motherhood

American actor Reese Witherspoon is looking back at the challenges she faced during the early days of her motherhood.

During a chat on Dax Shephard’s Armchair Expert podcast, the Legally Blonde star, who is a mother of three, talked to Kristen Bell and Monica Padman regarding the many difficulties that arose after she and ex-husband Ryan Phillippe welcomed their eldest daughter Ava.

"I did not have a lot of support with my first baby and I learned really early, like this is not going to work,” she said.

"I tried to muscle through for five months with Ava, just not sleeping and I became delirious,” she said, adding that she “couldn’t have worked” through the first few months of her daughter’s life.

"I was lucky enough to have money saved and I didn't have to work but it's just not a one-person job,” she acknowledged.

"I would even say it's not a two-person job,” she added.

Witherspoon and Phillippe became parents to Ava in September of 1999 when the actor was only 23. They welcomed their second child, son Deacon Phillippe in October 2003.

The two parted ways in the fall of 2006.